Shorter sleepers are over-eaters

25 March 2014

Young children who sleep less eat more, which can lead to obesity and related health problems later in life, reports a new study by UCL researchers.

The study found that 16 month-old children who slept for less than 10 hours
each day consumed on average 105kcal more per day than children who slept for more
than 13 hours. This is an increase of around 10% from 982kcal to 1087kcal.

Associations between eating, weight and sleep have been reported previously
in older children and adults, but the study, published in the International
Journal of Obesity, is the first to directly link sleep to energy intake in children
under the age of 3 years.

The
association was observed before differences in weight emerged, strongly suggesting
that energy intake is a key pathway through which sleep contributes to weight
gain in early childhood. While the exact causes remain unclear, the regulation
of appetite hormones may become disrupted by shorter sleeping patterns.

The study, funded by Cancer Research UK, involved 1303 UK families in the
Gemini birth cohort, monitoring sleep when children were 16 months old and diet
at 21 months old.

“We know that shorter sleep in early life increases the risk of obesity,
so we wanted to understand whether shorter sleeping children consume more
calories” explains Dr Abi Fisher of the Health Behaviour Research Centre at UCL.

The key message here is that shorter sleeping children may prone to consume too many calories.

Dr Abi Fisher (UCL Health Behaviour Research Centre)

“Previous studies in adults and older children have shown that sleep loss
causes people to eat more, but in early life parents make most of the decisions
about when and how much their children eat, so young children cannot be assumed
to show the same patterns.

“The key message here is that shorter sleeping children may prone to
consume too many calories,” says Dr Fisher. “Although more research is needed
to understand why this might be, it is something parents should be made aware
of.”